MONOKULTUR

…er den perfekte Demokrat. Han er typen Kamala Harris identitetsforvirrede stedsøn stemmer på, selv om det er en traumatisk oplevelse, fordi han siger ting som “Queer liberation means defund the police.“

Han skaber sig åndssvag, som det er blevet kutyme for Demokrater og taler med forskellige accenter (ligesom Jasmine Crocket), alt efter hvem han henvender sig til. Når han altså ikke tuder, som det også er kutyme at gøre. Demonstrerer mod Tesla. Han mener at bystyret skal drive supermarkeder med penge taget fra private supermarkeder, så prisen på dagligvarer kan holdes nede. Og han har vundet primærvalget i en by, der stemte 85% Biden og på at Letitia James kunne “Get Trump!” – hun er selvfølgelig begejstret over udsigten.

X-profilen Fischer King siger

A problem with NYC mayoral elections is low voter turnout. This probably is related to the fact that a lot of people – especially in Manhattan and the immediately surrounding neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens – are just passing through. They won’t be there in a few years, and don’t feel invested.

This is the kind of voter who would vote for tough on crime policies. The left does a good job at motivating people who live on social services, and long-time New Yorkers are also leftwing by a good margin. So getting another Giuliani or Bloomberg isn’t going to be easy.

Vælgere som Cynthia Nixon,der siger han er “a guy who will stand up to Trump.” Vælgere der bare dyrker cuckold, eller er unge og liljehvide, fortrækker “Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand. AOC and Temu Obama. Letitia James and Alvin Bragg. Zohran Mamdani.” som X-profilen MAZE skrev. “What to make of the NY mayoral race?” spurgte David Sacks på X.

Socialism beats neoliberalism in the new Democratic Party, just as nationalism beats neoconservatism in the new Republican Party. Those are your choices for the future. Globalism is on its way out.

“This is the flip side of Trumpism, inevitable for similar reasons, and absent full catastrophe in coming Mamdani-ruled Gotham (not impossible), the electoral mainstreaming of dingbat campus socialism has only begun” istemte Matt Taibbi 

New York City’s mayoral race has been won by Zohran Mamdani, no Bernie Sanders-style imitator but the real thing — son of a famed socialist scholar and Marvel superhero to every Jacobin-reading, keffiyeh-wearing student activist huddled in Judean People’s Front-type confabs, between bell hooks readings and visits to Mom and Dad on the Upper West Side. In this country, it’s the most significant movement victory in a century, almost certainly presaging in the near future an epic clash at the summit of American politics between socialism and, well, anything else. As Michael Buffer would say, “Let’s get ready to rum-m-m-ble!”

In a comet-like ascent Mamdani has become a bête noire for conservatives, many Jewish New Yorkers, and moderates thanks to a list of controversial statements, including a quasi-defense of the phrase “globalize the intifada” (in fairness, after a gotcha question), not signing a State Assembly resolution recognizing the Holocaust, and leading efforts to boycott Israel and slow Israeli charities.

Byron York skrev i Washington Examiner forleden om “the current dreadful state of the Democratic Party”. Chokket over Trumps valgsejr i 2016 blev ikke løst med et samlet og bedre politisk modtræk, eller alternativ om man vil, men “attack, attack, attack”, med Rusland-konspirationsteorier og følgende efterforskning ved specialundersøger Robert Mueller, endeløse løgnehistorier dyrket med febervildelse af medierne og sabotage af hans politik indefra embedsværket og det juridiske system

Now it is the Democrats who are distracted and back on their feet, with the party engaged in bitter infighting and struggling to come up with a unified strategy to oppose Trump. Meanwhile, Trump is pushing forward on all fronts, setting the agenda — just look at the recent bombing of nuclear sites in Iran — and putting together one of the most consequential presidencies in years.

Part of the problem is that Democrats are still in a state of shock. Go back to last summer, when an internal coup resulted in President Joe Biden’s departure from the reelection race. Then go to November, when the party was stunned to lose to Trump. Then go to January-February-March of this year when they were overwhelmed by Trump’s audacious use of executive authority in his first months in office. Democrats are still playing catch-up.

Perhaps their biggest problem is that they don’t have a big, unifying cause, like the Russia narrative, to use as a cudgel against the Trump administration. It is hard to overstate the daily damage the Russia affair did to Trump in 2017, and its absence today has left Democrats in a far weaker position than they were back then.

Nu er deres angreb ukoordinerede, hysteriske og konstant på den forkerte side af det store flertal af amerikanerne. “Democrats have lost again to Trump, but this time they are still searching for the magic issue to use against him.” skriver York og rammer det store problem når ens motivation er at finde “a guy who will stand up to Trump”, frem for en, der er god for sikkerhedspolitikken, arbejder- og middelklassen, økonomien osv. 

Et af de tåbelige standpunkter, er at kalde Trumps angreb på Irans atomvåben-program for Forfatningsstridigt og grundlag for endnu(!) en Rigsret, fordi det er op til Kongressen formelt at erklære krig. Jonathan Turley “have long criticized the abandonment of the clear language of the Constitution on the declaration of wars”, men minder om

Only eleven such declarations have been made in our history. That has not happened since World War II in 1942. Over 125 military campaigns have spanned from Korea to Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq. It is not a rule honored solely in the breach.

Democrats were supportive when Clinton launched cruise missile attacks under Operation Infinite Reach on two continents on August 20, 1998. He ordered attacks in locations in Khartoum, Sudan, and Khost Province, Afghanistan.

The War Powers Act has always been controversial and largely ineffectual. Presidents have long asserted the inherent powers to conduct such attacks under their Article II authority as the designated Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. The WPA requires the President to inform Congress within 48 hours in a written notice to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate of the action.

The WPA further bars the use of armed forces in such a conflict for more than 60 days without congressional authorization for use of military force (AUMF) or a declaration of war by the United States. There is a further 30-day withdrawal period.

Og der har dannet sig en præcedens for præsidenter at ignorere de nærmere regler, som “In 1999, Clinton ignored the 60-day deadline and continued to bomb forces in Kosovo”. 

In responding to the current demands, Trump could look to a curious ally: Hillary Clinton.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pushed for unilateral attacks during the  Obama Administration. She dismissed the need to consult, let alone secure authorization, from Congress. In March 2011, Clinton testified that there was no need for such consultation and declared that the Administration would ignore a 60-day limit on unauthorized military actions.

Obama also defied the War Powers resolution on Syria. He actually did ask for congressional authorization to take military action in that country in 2013, but Congress refused to approve it. He did it anyway. 

Demokraternes argument, siger Truley, er hentet ud af “the Claude Rains School of Constitutional Law”. Et andet nedsmetningspunkt for Demokraterne, skrev Turley tidligere, er deres “No Kings!” mantra, der pisker dem stadigt dybere ind i en hysterisk illusion

It is called the illusory truth effect, whereby the repetition of a false claim can create an impression of truth. Ironically, it is a technique denounced by some of these very same critics as a common means of disinformation. They cite the effect as a justification for censorship of opposing views.

Yet, what is disinformation to some is information to others. “Democracy is dying” may be an absurdity, but it is also their advocacy — and it is protected speech, no matter how disinformative.

The danger is that these Democratic politicians are fueling the most radical and violent elements in our country with their “rage rhetoric.”

The images reinforce the “no holds barred” message.

“Mamdani has said that he intends to make New York a “model for the Democratic Party”” skriver Turley videre, ved at “freezing rents, providing free child care, and other programs by “taxing the rich.””

Politicians have long turned to the “Eat the rich!” battle cry when things are not working out politically or economically. When struggling in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) pledged a wealth tax, declaring that she was coming after “the diamonds, the yachts, and the Rembrandts too.” Then-New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, another Democratic contender at the time, was barely registering in the polls when he promised that “we will tax the hell out of the wealthy.”

The election also reinforces the opposition of many to the move to restore the state and local tax (SALT) deductions, which forces taxpayers in low-tax states to subsidize residents in high-tax states, such as California and New York. By allowing the deductions, politicians can assure New Yorkers that they will receive some of the money back from the rest of the country through deductions, justifying even higher tax hikes. I have long opposed SALT deductions as a uniquely bad idea.

The question is whether wealthy individuals and corporations will accelerate the exit from New York in light of continued support for increasing tax burdens and public subsidies.

De rige kan rejse, men “if Mamdani wins the general election in November and implements his policies, their impact would be disastrous for the people of New York City, including the poor, the working class, and many of the young voters who carried him to victory.” skrev Michael Shellenberger på X

A citywide rent freeze and expanded rent control would choke new housing supply, discourage landlords from maintaining existing units, and entrench inequality by rewarding incumbency while locking out newcomers. The evidence is already stark: New York City’s acknowledgment on February 8 that the latest Housing and Vacancy Survey (HVS), a study of housing conditions, shows the rental vacancy rate in early 2023 at 1.4 percent, the lowest in more than 50 years. This crisis emerged after the 2019 rent laws that Mamdani wants to expand. Berlin tried a similar approach in 2020; construction collapsed, black markets emerged, and rents ultimately surged when the courts overturned the law. Mamdani’s plan to eliminate transit fares would exacerbate the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s multibillion-dollar deficit and compromise service quality in a system already operating at capacity. His proposal for city-run grocery stores ignores Chicago’s failed attempt, where poor oversight led to spoiled food, inventory gaps, and unsustainable losses. And his pledge to slash the NYPD budget comes at a time when violent crime remains elevated, assaults on transit workers are rising, and 911 response times lag across the boroughs.

“Why then did he win such a resounding victory, particularly from those voters under 40 years old? …” undrer Shellenberger sig, om en by, hvor 85% stemte på kartoffel som deres præsident og en statsanklager til at forsøge at fængsle oppositionens kandidat ud fra Beria argumentet, ‘vis mig manden og jeg finder forbrydelsen!’. Som Taibbi bemærkede “Colleges used to subtly pull students back from this ledge before graduation so as not to freak out actual tuition-payers, but now the parents are socialists, leading here.”

Many will argue we saw movement in Mamdani’s direction with the rise of chief backer Bernie Sanders. Bernie nearly captured the Democratic nomination in 2020 despite self-identifying as a “democratic socialist,” unimaginable as recently as the Obama years. While Sanders infamously went on a “very strange honeymoon” in the Soviet Union and authored books with titles like Our Revolution and It’s Okay to Be Angry About Capitalism, his politics by the time he reached Washington were closer to Eisenhower than Marx, as he pushed ideas like an increased minimum wage, single-payer health care, and drug reimportation to fit the framework of traditional free-market America. Sanders grew up dirt poor in Brooklyn and never lost affection for the party of the New Deal, perhaps to a fault; loyalty to the DNC and figures like pal Joe Biden were a big reason he never reached the White House.

Mamdani is different. Born in Uganda to a postcolonial theorist and a future Hollywood director, he’s a fancy prep school kid like me (Bank Street in Manhattan) and a recent immigrant — in itself not bad, but the crises of America’s past aren’t in his political muscle memory. You’ll get a better sense of his beliefs reading father and Columbia prof Mahmood Mamdani’s impenetrable Citizen and Subject than you will watching docs about Mario Savio or Woodstock.

(…)

17-year-old males of my generation reached college trained to see the main logistical challenges of life as scoring beer, scoring weed, and chasing girls. If you went to a certain type of school (Mamdani’s Bowdoin definitely qualifies), there was pretty much always beer and weed somewhere in your dorm, and often girls too. The only admission price was The Discussion. I went to Bard, where a handful of dudes I envied deeply wore Daniel Ortega jackets and Che-style facial hair and talked about Systems of Oppression until women threw themselves at them. It was a great rap. Human problems would disappear if society would just meet citizen needs, not force people to fight for resources, and eliminate sociopathic mechanisms like the corporation that profit from war, disease, and addiction. You can make it sound awesome even now!

If the concept only has to hold up long enough to get a college student laid, socialism works. You only land in the big lol once you take the step New York just has, into reality. The part no one mentions at campus parties is that the replacement for markets in socialism is not just human authority, but dumb authority. Yes, prices can be oppressive, but try swapping out organic pricing for committees of sociology majors and AOC types deciding how much they think shoes or ice cream or a house should cost. Assuming Mamdani wins, this is going to be a hilarious surprise to voters eager for city-run stores and the fantastic services we’ve been told, apparently falsely, need to cost something.

Som Stephen Miller advarede “Trump needs to make sure New York City doesn’t attempt to acquire nuclear weapons“. Amen.